Well, the same reasoning would go for any university in Finland, but it just wouldn’t make as sexy of a headline.. ..and there probably were a looot of different reasons, like the difference in available funding, networks and users (and the fact that Aalto University didn’t even exist back then), but I’ll talk about the reason that I’ve identified. And the reason comes up when I talk to Finnish students and ask them

“Why wouldn’t you apply to Startuplifers, and work for a startup in Silicon Valley?”

Now if you stop and think about your answer to that question, just for 3 seconds, you probably come up with at least 10 logical reasons (like: “I couldn’t care less for startups or Silicon Valley.”) Can’t blame you for that. But there’s one answer that comes up most often.

“I don’t think I’m good enough for the companies there.”

I hate it, because nine times out of ten, it simply isn’t true. Finnish students are usually better educated, and have more work experience than their US counterparts. Take it from me, I sell Finnish students to startups. And each time the startups are extremely surprised, when I show a sample of the merchandise.

“Oh, I thought you were talking about student interns. She could be a Lead Designer here!”

The Reason, that I’ve been talking about, is that the people over there are raised into believing that they’re the best in the world, and they should only aim at conquering the world. So others start to believe in it too.
But when the students from our program come back after working in Silicon Valley, when they’ve seen behind the curtain, they realize:

“I could be anyone of those entrepreneurs who I worked for, those people who have millions in funding to build their ideas.”

That’s the true beauty and mission of the program. To make Finnish students realize their potential!
So join our mission! Even if you know for sure that you’re not the one for our program, you probably know lots of people that have the potential to be the next Elon Musks!  We have jobs for engineers, designers and business people. We’ve partnered up with startups that are building self-driving trucks, searching for a better treatment to cancer and developing advanced AI systems. By seeing that the people working on those companies are no different from us, we’re able to build more of those world-changing ideas here in Finland!

Startuplifers is an internship program that finds the most suitable work opportunities for you in the biggest startup hubs in the world. We coach you with applications and interviews and help you with the flights and visas. Read what the current Lifers think about life in San Francisco!